This week, in promotion of NIS America's newly released Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness PS4/PSV game, the first two episodes of the Psycho-Pass anime series are free in the PS Store. Moreover, it's actually the Extended Edition of the series, in which pairs of consecutive episodes were concatenated to form ~45-minute episodes; thus, the two free episodes are actually the equivalent of the original format's first 4 episodes.

In related news, a required update to Media Go's Network Downloader component has broken my installation's ability to connect to PSN to access material in my download list. T_T I guess my last resort is to upgrade to the current version of the main program and see if it's just a backward compatibility issue.

A while back, there was a neat little quiz at Anime News Network: Can You Name 10 (More) Anime from the 2000s?. As I recall, I got either 8 or 9 correct when I first took the quiz (I know for sure I missed the Lyrical Nanoha question, as I know nothing about that series other than some of its characters being in my Nendoroid Generation PSP game; I can't remember whether I got the [Haruka|D.N.Angel|Pretear|Saiyuki] question right the first time). That was much better than I expected to do, given that I think I'm best with 90s anime. Anyway, how do you guys do with this quiz? (I'll go ahead and presume a 0 for Atariboy :P )

Right Stuf has a Funimation sale happening. Didn't do anything to help me get the Fullmetal Alchemist set, but I did order the collector's edition of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Harmony. Haven't seen the former, and thought the latter looked pretty cool. Honestly, didn't end up saving much, but I haven't purchased any anime in a while, so it's cool.

The Funimation sale is how I managed to save quite a bit in ordering the Haruhi and Code Geass Collector's Edition sets (and would have saved a bunch on the Escaflowne Collector's Edition set if it had not been pre-sold out already). They're not actually part of the sale, but when the sale started, they had their prices lowered (seems to have gone up a little since then), and then the Got Anime discount took off even more. I re-subscribed to GA just recently because I knew these collector's editions would make it very worthwhile right away.

I don't have The Girl Who Leapt Through Time on Blu-ray yet, but I've had the limited edition of the original (Bandai) North American DVD release since 2009. Over the years, I've gotten it signed by the animation studio head and one of the animation directors (who was also character designer and animation director for R.O.D, by the way). It's a very sweet movie. I'd be surprised if you weren't charmed by it. Incidentally, it was originally a novel published in the 60s (and also a live-action movie in 1983). This anime version of it got a shout-out in the first episode of the recent Bunnicula American TV series (the text on that poster says, "The Eye Who Leapt Through Time").

I noticed recently that the Wikipedia page for Saber Marionette J, one of my favorite anime series, mentions only that the "evil" Saber Dolls--Tiger, Luchs, and Panther--are named after species of cats. There's no mention at all of the more significant fact that they're named after German World War II tank models. Apparently, that information used to be in the page 5 years ago, but then someone made a massive edit, intending to create a separate Characters page. That never happened. Gee, thanks.

There was a "Can You Name These 90s Anime?" quiz, too. I got all of them right, though one was kind of a guess, and another would definitely have been wrong if not for the fact that the title was printed in Japanese in the corner of the image (a copyright mark). There was also "Can You Name 10 More Anime from the 90s?", which I remember taking a while back. I got all of them right just now, but I think I missed 2 or 3 the first time. I definitely chose the wrong El-Hazard the first time, though I was most certainly closer than the majority of participants.

Thunderbolt Fantasy had its season finale last Friday. And yes, I say "season finale" rather than "finale" because a sequel was announced right after the first* Japanese airing of the episode, too! More nightmare fuel for JeremyR, banzai! Anyway, I of course have not seen the finale, because it'll only open up for non-premium Crunchyroll viewers this coming Friday. What I saw last Friday was the penultimate episode, #12. It's a bit rough trying to avoid spoilers. . . . But man, these last few episodes have been packed full of revelations and twists! It is not at all like the The Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven template it opened with! For one thing, no one in those movies had their rib cage blasted out of their body.

Some guy at the Anime News Network forum said he was surprised about the sequel announcement because the home video sales had been poor. I thought, "What?", and checked Amazon.co.jp. The Thunderbolt Fantasy Blu-ray volumes 1 and 2 were 14th and 15th best sellers in the anime category, which sounds pretty darned good given that most of what was above them was general-audiences material, like Disney movies. Maybe he was looking at old data.

Just a quick post to say that I did indeed see the Thunderbolt Fantasy season finale within minutes of it finally being available for ad-supported viewers, and HOT DAMN, two major surprises in the final episode! Not only that, but it had (of course) the series' most spectacular fighting--though nowhere near as bloody as earlier ones, due to no cannon fodder participation. It was all pretty freaking awesome, though the second surprise unfortunately went by a little too fast. All the same, a satisfying ending that really leaves me with a ton of anticipation for season 2.

Also, I took a look at my new The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Blu-ray set. It's gorgeous, though the first season of the original show (from 2006) has noticeably muddy image quality due to having to be an HD upscale job. Still, it eliminates the compression artifacts that the DVDs had, so that's a major plus. The other series in the set all look spectacular in HD.

And again, just a reminder that the content of the Interests field listed under my PSPMinis.com forum profile comes directly from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

What's that now? If you watched Thunderbolt Fantasy, you would remember the vaaaast amounts of puppet blood spilled over the course of the series. Heck, in one episode, there is a shot focusing on a character's feet stepping through a large blood puddle. A puddle he indirectly created via hacking through a small army of enemy soldiers. And that rib cage, uh, extraction I mentioned above, that was most certainly bloody. Curiously, though, when enemies are blown apart rather than hacked up, there is no blood--I guess it's vaporized.

I finally watched the live action 009-1 movie. It's so bad. So bad it was almost decent. The movie tried so hard to be sexy, and it just came off as awkward. Like in the beginning of the movie, I was pleasantly surprised to see some boobs. Unfortunately, the women were such terrible dancers, it killed all enjoyment. Then there were a couple of the cringiest sex scenes ever. There was one exchange were a guy told her the rumors he had heard must be true, that she was a monster (Which was a Tumblr level trigger for her), and she comes back by saying have you heard the other rumor about her being a monster in the sack. It was a weird, cringe inducing, forced "sassy" comeback. A lot of moments felt forced. The actress that plays Mylene apparently doesn't do any nudity, because whenever she used the machine guns in her breast they just showed her back. That, or the CG work would have been too costly. And probably crappy. Which most of the CG in the movie was.

The plot was just plain asinine. One thing in particular was really f@$&ed up, but getting into world kind of be a major spoiler. But not really since it was so poorly written it was obvious almost immediately. No character development at all really. No one really had any real motivation. And if they did it didn't make sense. If they spent less time padding the movie with sexual crappiness, and more time on the story and characters, they could have made a much better movie.

The fight scenes were okay at least. Nothing spectacular, but definitely the highlight of the movie. And the ladies were all pretty hot. So that's a plus.

Ofaliss, is this cheap enough for you (Durarara box set)? Part of Day 3 of the Right Stuf holiday sale. It's not a 1-day or 1-week price, so it should stay that price until around Christmas, but maybe there's a limit to stock levels. The set isn't named as a limited edition, though, so maybe not.

And wow, my CDJapan charge from October 28th finally posted 25 days later.

For what is presumably a limited time/production count, the Amazon-exclusive edition of Cowboy Bebop on Blu-ray is back. Sure, I'd like to get it--again, I do have it on DVD already, and already packed with collector's value--but with the last few months having laid waste to my budget. . . .

Also distressing, Aniplex releases actually being part of a sale, any sale, is an unexpected first. Would be nice if their Wagnaria!! season 3 sets joined the Right Stuf holiday sale in the coming days, too--er, except for the part about not having any money for things that, y'know, aren't presents for other people.

Oh, if only correcting other people's English could pay millions of dollars!

I once bought a DVD that had an interview with character designer Satoshi Urushihara (of Langrisser and Growlanser fame) at, I think, CDUniverse.com. Admittedly, the DVD's main feature was not a particularly innocent thing. From then on, every freaking recommendation e-mail that website sent to me contained porn, and lots of it. I had to go into my account and disable movie recommendations entirely, just to make it stop.

That was the first time they ever emailed me about their adult content. I got another one the other day. I don't mind, really. If something catches my eye in the email I'll check it out. I usually only get those sort of DVDs when I come across one browsing what's on clearance.

Atariboy, longtime online retailer Robert's Anime Corner Store ( http://www.animecornerstore.com ) has the complete Girls und Panzer 12-episode TV series on DVD for a mere $5 (+ shipping--and I vaguely recall that they might have a minimum amount for placing orders, something like $10). You can shop without creating a user account on the site, but I do recall that the checkout process has a whole lot of text, a large amount of which probably doesn't apply to a tiny, in-stock order.

I just placed a Right Stuf order for a number of Christmas gifts for family members (+ 1 item for me, helping to qualify for free shipping, + 1 free "$5 blind box" item). Since the only part of the order that fell under the holiday sale was the solitary for-me item, everything else qualified for my Got Anime (i.e., their frequent buyer program) 10-percent-off discount, totaling $4.35 off. Since re-subscribing to the program in September, before it went from $12 to $18 a year, it's now saved me $31.67, if my memory is correct. Not bad!

Right Stuf has finally announced when this big holiday sale of theirs ends: this weekend. I was really hoping it'd go right up until Christmas (so that I could position a potential order's credit card charges on next month's billing cycle).

Hmm, I thought you had said you liked what you saw. How much did you see? I've pondered getting it from time to time (but no money for that this time).

To my surprise, the Right Stuf holiday sale is not ending at a midnight, but rather at 12 PM CST Sunday (tomorrow), according to their website front page. They must have changed that just recently, because they'd earlier sent out an e-mail saying "midnight Sunday," with it being unclear if that meant Saturday night or Sunday night.

One of the shows I've been watching on Crunchyroll this season is Girlish Number. I don't know why it's called that (other than that being the name of the overall project, which includes a serialized novel and a manga, both of which only started earlier this year), because it has nothing to do with the subject matter, a surprisingly pessimistic look into the world of TV anime production. The main character is a newbie voice actress who isn't very good and doesn't work at getting better. Her only concern is getting fans. Her manager is her older brother, himself a former (failed) voice actor. She happens to get cast as the main character in a carelessly produced anime adaptation of a somewhat popular, but formulaic, fantasy/harem light novel series. The show's producer's main concern is spending (not making!) money--but not where it counts, since the show ends up infamous for its poor visuals. I can't predict how everything will conclude, but the series follows this enterprise that bleeds red ink, has a number of people involved who don't care, and has a few people involved who do care but can't do anything about it because they're just cogs in the machine (the writer of the light novel series included, since the anime producers just about entirely ignore his requests to fix the show). It's kind of surreal, a show adapted from a serial novel that's about a crappy show adapted from a crappy serial novel. . . .

One last thought: the despicable producer in the story is named 九頭, which is literally "nine heads"--you know, like certain mythical monsters. Also, the name is pronounced "Kuzu," which happens to be a homonym for the Japanese word for "garbage." Who needs subtlety, eh?

Well, basically the premise of subverting the Cthulhu mythos masked the fact that it was otherwise a pretty standard "harem" type deal, where an average annoying kid has lots of girls chasing him for no real apparent reason. Especially as he seemed to be very unlikeable, even by anime kid standards. Almost as bad as the kid from The Rifleman, though not as bad as Wesley from Star Trek or the dead kid from SeaQuest..

I found the constant mythos references mildly amusing, and some are fairly obscure, but I don't think it holds up much as a story on its own. And if you don't get all the in-jokes, you'll miss out on the best part.

Dead kid from seaQuest? I only remember one who was alive. Did he die at some point I didn't see?

The Right Stuf holiday sale end time got corrected/updated, finishing at late Sunday night's midnight CST. I ended up placing another order, into which I included an out-of-stock item and a pre-order item (neither being part of the sale) to try to force the in-stock items not to ship for at least a week. My December budget has been hammered enough as it is. The things I bought included one thing that's $30 less than its normal price, as well as my first-ever Aniplex-published purchase (this is the first time ever that Aniplex has participated in a sale). Some people claim that Aniplex's sky-high prices are worth it because their video quality is far superior to that of the other North American publishers. We'll see.

I wonder if those people would claim that a 3-minute Blu-ray release would be worth paying $20 if it filled the entire 50 GB. Oh, and if it came with amazing bonus goods like a postcard and a sticker.

Oh, look, a Gravity Rush anime. I really like the graphics, they remind me of Guilty Gear Xrd, which is always a good thing.
Surely the franchise will become more popular and more doujinshi will be made.

I got a spectacular deal today on the recently released The Legend of Korra complete series Blu-ray set . . . sort of. While passing through the DVD/BD section at Target, I noticed a bizarre juxtaposition: the Korra complete series DVD set tagged at $30 sitting beside the Korra complete series Blu-ray set tagged at $15. Huh??? I checked the tags to make sure, and yep, the UPC numbers were correct. BUT, when I took the Blu-ray set and scanned it at the closest bar code scanner station, it came up as $35. I asked an associate if I could get it at the tag price, and after using a portable scanner on the tag and product, they gave me the okay to have it at $15 (and then removed the tag from the shelf)!

However, after getting home and looking up the release, I found that it was supposed to have come in a cardboard slipcase which also contained an "art of Korra" booklet--or at least first print copies were. Mine was shrinkwrapped, while this unboxing video, https://youtu.be/DtN8dayXuzA , shows that the slipcased set doesn't have a wrap on the disc case inside the cardboard. It looks like mine is a newer printing rather than one removed from a slipcase. I haven't opened it yet, so I'll check other stores to see if I can get an exchange.

But man, $15 + tax for a 52-episode new release Blu-ray is pretty sweet.

I got the complete series of The Phil Silvers Show at release for the same price off Amazon Canada, which was marked at $129.99 for its MSRP by the publisher (Although few if anyone pays the list price for new releases, so it was probably more like $90 at full price at release).

Happily, they honored their mistake. The US arm of Amazon would've just cancelled it.

Wow, your deal beats mine by a mile! I think the Korra complete series Blu-ray set has only a $40 MSRP. Incidentally, I've checked one other Target so far, but it only had two copies of the same reprint edition I got. I think I'll have to expand my search to other chains, maybe do a buy-and-return if I can find a first-edition copy.

FYI, Episode 1 of Wolf's Rain, in both Japanese and English audio versions, is currently free on the NA PS Store.

AxelMill, check THIS out: https://shop.sentaifilmworks.com/products/himouto-umaru-chan-premium-box-setHimouto! Umaru-chan Premium Box Set! Now THAT is how you do a limited edition! There's a whole bunch of fun bonus goodies in there (including a magnet--I have a bunch of LEs' magnets on my refrigerator--a mini figure, and a lenticular postcard!), and the release even comes with both DVDs and BDs (uncommon for Sentai releases), plus an English dub track (though Sentai's dub work doesn't always come off well to me; back in their days as ADV Films, I used to nearly uniformly dislike all their dubs). I'll need to set aside some May budget for this.

A few days ago, I saw Episode 3 of the currently airing Akiba's Trip anime series. For once, informative product placement: I learned that there are actually Carl's Jr. restaurants in Japan. The show's main female character goes to one (presumably the real one in Akihabara) while mad and devours a pile of Thickburgers with one bite each. I should note that the restaurant is one of a great many companies listed in the credits for special thanks. Oh, and later in the episode, there is a shot of a Taito Hey! arcade billboard (or maybe simply the actual storefront), showing line art of Great Thing and one of the Fossil family.

I had a horrible dream about singing puppets. They were on stage and were singing Gilbert & Sullivan songs in Chinese (at least what I think sounds like Chinese based on watching dozens of undubbed movies) and dressed in early 20th century costumes.

As much as I would like to blame you, onmode-ky, it was probably because I watched the horrible Thunderbird 6 a couple days before. I couldn't sleep and needed something mind-numbing.